Publicaties

Recently, poly(nonamethylene terephthalate) (PAT(n=9)) and poly(decamethylene terephthalate) (PAT(n=10))
gained increasing interest since it was reported to exhibit enhanced endothelial cell adhesion and viability
compared to other poly(alkylene terephthalate) (PAT) analogues. Enhanced endothelial cell interactivity is of
particular interest when targeting cardiovascular applications, more specifically, for creating synthetic ...

The production of plastic has grown exponentially over the past few decades and with it the amount of plastic waste leaking in the environment, where it fragments into micro- and nanoplastics. This problematic situation stresses the need for increased plastic collection, recycling and reuse rates. Extrusion-based additive manufacturing (AM) and especially fused filament fabrication (FFF) offer an efficient and effective method to reuse and ...

The inherent anisotropy of composites complicates their damage response. The influence of multiaxiality, particularly in carbon-based composites, is not thoroughly understood due to obstacles related to damage monitoring during loading. In this study, the response of different carbon/epoxy laminates under fatigue is examined through dedicated in situ microscopic observations. By varying the orientation of off-axis layers, the impact of ...

Additively manufactured parts of thermoplastic materials using the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) technique
express transversely isotropic characteristics. Those characteristics are related to the FFF technique which leads
to the formation of particular bonds and voids between printed filaments, both of which are investigated in this
study. Tensile testing of printed Nylon samples reveals that the transverse isotropy can be ...

Testing of carbon fibre epoxy hollow beam components was undertaken using digital image correlation and acoustic emission techniques. Static and fatigue testing was used to characterise the damage mechanisms of the components under two separate compressive loading cases. Firstly, the load was transferred via simple contact of a rectangular pusher plate, whilst in the second case the plate was bolted to the top surface of the beam. Digital image ...

The inconsistent interfacial bonding of 3D-printed materials is accompanied by increasing scattering of the measured fracture toughness in delamination tests. This article focuses on the analysis of the delamination tests using theories developed for conventional composites. To this end, nylon 3D-printed
specimens reinforced with carbon fibers are subjected to the mode I Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) and the mode II End-Loaded Split (ELS) ...

Numerical modelling of 3D-printed Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) specimens with thermoplastic matrices reinforced with continuous fibres is still in its infancy. The existing numerical work is mostly related to the adhesion between printed filaments and not to the mechanical properties. However, the latter are one of the most important parameters that define the structural behaviour of the material.

A numerical three-step ...

Delamination tests are commonly used for the evaluation of the fracture toughness. The analytical formulation used for the tests is derived for homogeneous symmetric laminates with a crack propagating in the middle plane. The difference between manufacturing and operating temperature and moisture conditions is neglected. The present paper considers geometries with asymmetric generic stacking (asymmetric and unbalanced) that are under the ...

Acoustic Emission (AE) is casually employed for monitoring the mechanical behaviour of composite media as the amount of damage and the different fracture modes can be well characterised through the evolution of the AE characteristics. However, the sensitivity of the technique allows for more than just classification of the existing damage modes in composite materials. In the present paper, the limits of AE are further pushed as it is used to ...